


The Knight Fair and the Comely Maid

by Halja



Category: Nibelungenlied
Genre: (at least for Kriemhild), F/F, Goodbyes, Kissing, Light Angst, Platonic Kissing, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-18 00:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10605309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halja/pseuds/Halja
Summary: Kriemhild is about to ride to Xanten with her new husband. Brunhild thinks of what might have been.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [The Knight Fair and the Comely Maid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5447096) by [Halja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halja/pseuds/Halja). 



> Translating a very, very old work of mine. And trying to make it a least a little less awkward, hopefully, but I make no promises. At all.
> 
> This story completely disregards the Volsunga Saga, any Siegfried-related Eddic poems, and generally Norse myths as a whole. Oh, and Wagner's Ring Cycle, too. Which basically means, I just felt like doing away with all possible Siegfried/Brunhild-as-past-lovers subtext and all Brunhild > Siegfried > Kriemhild love triangles and focus on the femslash.
> 
> Rereading this story, which I actually first wrote a few years ago and when I didn't really know a lot about this kind of thing, I realized Brunhild might also be read a trans character here, if you squint enough. The original intention was to write her as a lesbian (or at least a women able to feel attracted to other women) dissatisfied with the society she lived in, but I guess either interpretation could work. In the end, it's the reader who gets to choose.

 

 

 

They see each other again right before the end of it all.

It is barely daybreak, and the torchlight gives everything it touches a comforting yet melancholic feel. The hall where they’ve met is still empty and quiet, although the castle is already buzzing with activity: there’s the courtyard to be cleaned up after the festivities, and knights to be recruited for Siegfried’s escort back to Xanten, and farewells to be bid.

Kriemhild’s hair looks gold and red at the same time in the orange glow of the torches. Their flames shine in her too-blue eyes, filling them with such warmth and sweetness as to make looking her in the face a difficult task. Her snow-white hands and face gleam amidst the bright-colored fabrics of her dress – Arab silks, and linen, and everything else that should enhance her beauty but in truth only ends up looking dimmed by it.

Brunhild knows that’s how a true queen is supposed to look like: a lady so beautiful and chaste, a devoted wife and a tender lover to a noble lord. Yet all that beauty will be wasted on a vassal’s demands. The people of Burgundy love Siegfried, that much is clear, but Brunhild does not share her new subjects’ opinions.

When Kriemhild takes her hands in hers – Kriemhild’s hands are smooth and delicate, while Brunhild’s sport the calluses and the scars of any soldier who spent his childhood learning how to wield swords and spears and bows – in a show of sisterly affection, Brunhild thinks of how their lives might have been, had she been born a man.

If only her king’s men looked at her and saw a noble and valiant warrior instead of a wild beast come from Hell. If only she hadn’t been forced to wait year after year for the arrival a groom who never seemed to come and whom she never even wanted, and to defeat the throngs of suitors come to lay siege to Isenstein’s halls day after day. If only she could live the life that was meant to be hers.

_Brunhild wouldn’t have had to marry Gunther. Kriemhild wouldn’t have had to marry Siegfried._

It is so very easy to deceive herself and to believe her own fantasy, to not feel the weight of long hair and richly-adorned clothes anymore.

It’s easier still, when Kriemhild’s lips brush hers in such an innocent gesture – one kiss for welcome, one kiss goodbye, and two sisters bound by an oath of friendship, isn’t that right? – that lights her soul and her body aflame.

 

 

 


End file.
